Category: Stories

On August 28th 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, Martin Luther King delivered the speech that will forever resonate in the American consciousness. Among the millions listening that day was Solomon Mendelson, Cantor of Beth Sholom of Long Beach and Lido. As time past, Sol read and reread the great Sermon. The content […]

I was born in a strange land; called Borough Park, Brooklyn, 1946. I grew up in the ’50’s, witnessed the birth of Rock and Roll, rooted for the Dodgers. When Jackie Robinson went into a slump, we went to Synagogue and prayed. We were Jews. We knew about discrimination. We felt for the man. He […]

I always loved songs. As a kid, I was around for the birth of rock and roll; the first one of my friends to get a mini transistor radio, for under the pillow listening to the Big Bopper while pretending to be asleep. On shabbes afternoon, when the coast was clear, I’d turn on WQXR, […]

Thomas Schwartz was born in Hungary, before World War Two. He spent his adolescent years in Bergen Belsen. After liberation, he spent his early manhood roaming around the Continent. Tommy, a polyglot, felt at home in any country after just a few weeks, having already learned the local language. Possessing a beautiful natural tenor, he […]

The following sermon was delivered by Rabbi Michael Goldman of Temple Israel Center on the occasion of my last Shabbat. Probably everyone here has some sort of memory of a musical conversion experience. The first time—or maybe it was the hundredth time—you heard a certain piece or genre of music or artist. Where and how […]

(This week, March 18, 2014, is Cantor Robert Bloch’s yahrtzeit. I delivered this eulogy at his funeral. May he be remembered for a blessing.) As I was nervously walking up the steps to the entrance of the Hebrew Union College on 40 west 68th street for the first time in the fall of 1965, I noticed […]

I once served with a Rabbi named Bernard, called “Bernie” by his friends. Before I came to the congregation, I had done my homework. It seems as though Bernie was known as a “Cantor Killer”—a Rabbi who goes through Cantors like Grant took Richmond. I remember getting a call late Friday night (yes, I answer […]

My Cantorial studies began at age eighteen. The Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, School of Sacred Music was an undergraduate program, and I started right after high school. Part of the deal was that every student had to study with a private voice teacher of their choice. The method of choosing was to follow […]

Just got back from Hoshana Rabah services, and I’m thinking of my mom. Tibby never missed Hoshana Rabah. It was the only day of the year she attended morning minyan. The only day of the year when you can hit in shul. Mom liked to hit. Back in the ’40’s and ’50’s, people hit. It was part of the […]

It’s two weeks before my first yontef davenning in ’63, and I’m terrified. My teacher, Willie Bogzester (“Buck-chester”) has prepared me very well for all the big moments, but this little Orthodox shul on Avenue C in Bayonne New Jersey where I was hired to sing for $700 skipped nothing—down to the most obscure Piyyut, […]